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Those trying their hardest were mocked for being keen

Patrick Kidd

November 23 2011, 12:30am, The Times

While Wales prepared for the World Cup with two short but intensive boot camps in the middle of Poland, miles from the nearest pub or nightclub, England were put up for ten weeks at a five-star country house hotel in Surrey.

Wales had three or four training sessions a day and cryotherapy chambers at minus 120C — dubbed “evil saunas” — to ease recuperation. England said they had a substandard pitch and a confused training regime.

“The Welsh trained in short, intense blocks and were definitely the fitter side when we played them in the warm-ups,” one player said. “We arrived at training on day one fresh, but by day four you were mentally drained and had been overcoached,” another said.